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Contents 1 question about the halloween quests 2 skeletons of dhuum gone 3 The Waiting Game 4 Skill Balance for November 2009 5 Guild Wars losing players, poor chices, and all when the end is near.

question about the halloween quests

i was wonding who it was that had the idea to make the fouth quest repatable, and make it so you can turn the reword on on another charr, becuase who every it was, i wouild like to thank them from the bottom of my heart, my survior charr made r2 and is only 330k of xp away from maxing. so plese tell me who so I can thank them in a propper way, becuase they have save me sooooooooo much time fariming at xmas to max the tital.--Thedreadlordpie 19:48, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Ditto. I made it from right at r2 to Legendary in just 3 hours (and that was with a lot of afk/TV watching). So thanks. It was nice to finally get that title done. Karate Jesus 20:20, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

+1, and judging by the number of "LFG skele farming 30++" in ToA, I'd say approximately plus 10,000 more. -- FreedomBound 21:39, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, this was (is) a real boost for pugging, and our alliance/guild even had skele farms going all the time, it was great and I had a lot of fun, thanks. Cracko 21:57, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

yes but it still begs the question who idea this was, wouild like to know.--Thedreadlordpie 22:46, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Since Linsey made the quests, I would assume it was her. Karate Jesus 14:00, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Apart from that it undermined the survivor title even more. (not that one can even say survivor had much left to it with kilroy and all) -- Salome 22:27, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Linsey created those quests, so it was her decision to make it repeatable. --Regina Buenaobra 02:01, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Don't get me wrong I actually enjoyed the quests and the repeatable thing was a grand thing indeed. However just not sure the skeletons should have been tradeable via storage. -- Salome 11:32, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Kinda too late now, but you should keep this in mind in the future events. - J.P.Talk 11:36, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

skeletons of dhuum gone

So skeletons get implented to stop/slow shadowform abuse,they kind of work then they get removed. Should i transelate that in "Yes we know how to stop farming, but we rather not cause we like farming." becouse i thougt guildwars wasent suposed to be about farming. or does anyone have another explenation that i missed?(also does this mean that shadowform wont be touched in the future?)84.196.205.90 12:18, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

It might just have been a coincidence,Who knows if anet actually realises they nerfed UWSC to some degree Lilondra 12:45, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

lol wat, ofcourse they realise that.Cracko 13:50, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I would doubt that they did in fact realize it. Otherwise the skeles would have been in move strategically placed areas. Karate Jesus 14:01, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

oh come on, anet is not stupid. Cracko 14:02, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to know were these removed on purpose or due an error. Keeping them would be good to stop or even slow UWSC. - J.P.Talk 14:07, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

I never said "stupid" cracko, but just keep in mind....these things happen often. Karate Jesus 14:25, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

...Too often :P - J.P.Talk 14:27, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Thing is, they have already nerfed uwsc in a way that its no longer a speed clear, by changing the terrorweb dryders, changing mob spawns and doing all kinds of things to make it as hard as possible. This was smart and its a little complicated to think of. now if you say that they might have not noticed that it completely kills uwsc, that just doesn't make any sense, else they would have made his skills Spells, etc. It is superobvious that they thought about this. and BTW: Too often? show me one instance where they nerfed something and didn't notice, and then i'll agree with you.Cracko 14:33, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Mantra of Resolve is the most recent one I can think of. They accidentally nerfed 600's and Raptor Farming and reverted it as soon as they got back to work. Karate Jesus 14:46, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Ah yes, that's true. Cracko 14:50, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

And that same thing happens pretty often with PvP especially. Karate Jesus 14:53, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm going to miss those little bastards! /wipes tears They impacted nothing on my farming for ectos, in fact, they worked in my favour, 40 more ecto-dropping enemies /blows nose And boy did that drop ectos >:) Now, it's all back to the Speedclears and wondering when Arenanet's going to actually do something to promote group play, looks like we'll have to wait to the festival events to do that. NO SKELETONS, COME BACK, and bring your ectos, cos they were nice >:) ~~000.00.00.00~~ 20:07, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

You mean like when they buffed BA, then nerfed RtW, Hunter's Shot, and Flail because rangers did too much damage? is for Raine, etc. 20:22, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

(R.I) Ah,When we stop playing this game and move on to the next game open for ruining (read:gw2) we will all be able to laugh about this.Fail IS the best form of humor :) Lilondra 20:34, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

I think it's likely that Skeletons of Dhuum are intended to hamper SF (simply because of the clause in their skills "penetrates all defenses"), the Live team chose to add them in a lore-based manner, and now that the event is over they are reviewing data regarding UW farming and deciding whether or not to re-insert the Skeletons permanently. elix Omni 21:04, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

^ Reasonable assumption right there. /crosses fingers that they come back... I want your ectos >:) ~~000.00.00.00~~ 21:07, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Y'all needa stop windmill tilting. Some things they do are Concept/RPG. When Bob actually changes critters' skill bars around, it'll no doubt be unmistakable who and what classes they're aimed at. ...kinda like the Henchmen bars, the dude has the subtlety of a rhino whether he realizes it or not --ilr 21:18, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

"windmill tilting" first time I've heard that before. I learn something new ^_^ ~~000.00.00.00~~ 21:34, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

It's a reference to the classic Don Quixote. elix Omni 22:06, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Something tells me that the removal of skelies was a mistake, because many mob changes I've seen have been reverted as well (such as a few random pop ups), and I recall Linsey telling me in-game that those small daily changes were meant to hinder UWSC. So I doubt they were meant to disappear - skelies and the pop ups I've seen. Although I haven't gone through all of the UW, it seems that all enemy changes were reverted, while ally changes (unable to use ghosts to block Aatxes for instance) are there still. -- Konig/talk 22:29, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Just talked with Linsey in game, she said that the removal of the added mobs was not intentional and they are working on fixing this. -- Konig/talk 00:28, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

And now they have returned. WOOT! Ectos here I come >:) ~~000.00.00.00~~ 00:49, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

The Mad King's Steward, you may have noticed, also disappeared. This disappearance was related to the skeleton issue, but the Steward won't return till tomorrow. --Regina Buenaobra 02:03, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Awesome. Anet, you and your weird styles of approaching things <3. Cracko 02:06, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Anet fixed UWSC and solo farms for the most part, although I still see people forming UWSC groups so I dont know if it is still possible. But 600hp Isnt slowed down or nerfed at all in the UW. Is there a fix coming for 600hp in the future since it doesnt make sense that other farm abilities are nerfed(slowed down if uwsc is still possible) and 600hp isnt slowed down at all. Even better with the skeletons in UW which seem to have a high ecto droprate they can even farm more ectos in the same time. Death Sligher62.133.217.132 11:48, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

the issue was speed-clearing and not farming. since this 600hp thing can't clear big parts of the underworld it's at least most likely to be not looked at for a while. 128.176.178.20 11:52, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

The Skeletons of Dhuum were part and parcel of the Halloween quests. It seemed perfectly logical to me that they be removed when the quests were. Perhaps they were anti-SF to prevent SF farming of the repeatable quest, Every Bit Helps.

The Waiting Game

This is going to be one hell of a bitch.

This has to be one of the most prime examples of how Arenanet's lack of communication causes un-necessary issues. There are people who aren't aware that the preparation time means days time, people are sitting around waiting for the quest to update, there are trolls and idiots compending an already confusing situation for a lot of players. Just go into some of the ToA districts and you actually see it happening: the confusion, the lack of information, the baiters and trollers making it worse. Would it be so hard, so truly difficult for one of you at Arenanet to just include an official message in the actual quest information... you know, directly in game where everyone with the quest can get it... saying something like "The preparations need some time, we are not talking about hours but days, so you don't need to be awake the whole night. ;)" ".... Or is that not a worthwhile thing... you know... combatting the confusion generated by this situation? Honestly, these things aren't hard, why are you guys struggling with common sense? ~~000.00.00.00~~ 01:01, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Some times I'm amazed people can actually feed themselves. We need restaurants to have signs over each table saying, "please move the spoon into your mouth". Erasculio 01:05, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I am also amazed that casual gamers are unable to check the wiki for every single update and then, when realizing that there is not enough information on the update page, search the RC for Regina's Journal post about this. OR that they simply can't go to a forum and hunt through threads named similarly to "Last (?) Halloween Quest" and realize that that's obviously the information they need. Because apparently, having a life and being a casual gamer makes you the equivalent of an unsupported brainstem hanging out of a deformed monkey's ass.

On a side note, Eras, realize that some people would like the information to simply be on their log-in screen LIKE EVERY OTHER FUCKING GAME. Karate Jesus 02:41, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

We sure did get our great suprise for this halloween :/ - J.P.Talk 03:06, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

You forgot twitter, and the fact the the official wiki and ingame are the two places the information reaches last (if even at all), go figure. I lost count on how many times Anet employees post on twitter, guru and god knows where else, while their journals and other places on this wiki where it's supposed to go, remain silent. - Kherec 07:36, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

It's news to me that WoW has a time table on its login screen letting people know the hour each quest is going to happen; I wonder how that looks like on Aion's screen, too.

You forgot one option, KJ: not assume, by themselves and thanks to their own fault, that the quest would happen in the next few hours and thus not waste their time waiting on the Temple of Ages. Arena Net has not given any sign of that being required in order to do the quest; it's the players' own mistake assuming, regardless of the lack of evidence, that they need to do so.

Meanwhile, instead of using their resources to add in-game a notice to clear a misconception 100% originated from players, maybe it would be smarter for ArenaNet, you know, to use said resources to improve the quest so many people are waiting for? Like they are doing right now? Erasculio 09:42, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Erasculio wins this round, KJ. Even WoW doesn't have login announcements to tell people the timing of festival quests, you're supposed to like... read the quest log and stuff. IMO they could have added a bit more dialog to the voice of grenth to make sure people aren't sitting there waiting for hours, but they really don't have to do that much external communication for a halloween quest. -Auron 10:28, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Yea, I didn't exactly make what I was saying clear. I didn't think they should announce the timeline for the festival quest on the log-in page. That was a carrying over conversation. I think that should have been put in the original update page rather than the playful crap we got that gave no info. The log-in page would be more of a place where you let people know that the quest exists and then link it to the wiki....which should have said the "days, not hours" thing in the first place. But, at least it was funny watching everyone in ToA freak out. Karate Jesus 15:06, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

i think the quest is gonna start on monday though InfestedHydralisk 15:44, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

If they finish it by Monday, that is. :D Karate Jesus 15:49, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah BlazeRick 16:26, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

What the hell is the OP even babbling about?-- anguard 16:30, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

So it seems to me that a few people dislike being kept in suspense and would like the designers to be explicit about the timing. I'll certainly deliver your feedback to Linsey. From what I understand, she wanted this to be a fun, suspenseful interlude (and a few people have certainly taken up the spirit of the quest, because there is some good speculation going on in various communities) before the fireworks begin, but sounds like people would rather have details on timing. --Regina Buenaobra 19:48, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Reggie, I could be wrong, but I dont think anyone here meant that. I think they meant that it would be polite of you to make the whole game aware that the wait will be more than a few hours. That way the suspense can be fun without making people angry and frustrated. 66.90.104.129

The only way that we could make "the whole game" aware of the specifics of the wait-time is to change the quest text itself. The login screen suggestion is probably not something that would be approved because the login screen isn't traditionally used for this. Having both community managers go into a district and sit there for hours repeating the same information doesn't achieve the goal, because it only gives the info to English or German speaking players who happen to be in that district and that particular point in time. I agree that this issue appears to be a pain point for a few players. --Regina Buenaobra 20:21, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Again I could be wrong, as i seem to be one of the few who enjoys the suspense of this quest, but I think people would have been happy with the quest text being a wee bit more explicit, in that it might have mentioned being summoned to fight dhuum in a matter of days. That way making it clear to players who don't seem to like the wait. Just playing devils advocate here, as i said before, I quite like the suspense. -- Salome 20:24, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

The problem with that being how, in a matter of days, the quest text would still be saying the event would only happen in a few days regardless of how it would happen in a few hours. Either Arena Net would have to change the quest text (for the third time), or they would have to remove the NPC significantly before the event arrives (which means less people would be able to participate). Erasculio 22:31, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Well, technically they could code the number in the text dialog to be a countdown, if the code side of the game allows for such things. I don't mind the waiting at all, as long as you have more than a few days to complete the next part of the quest. If the next part was only available for, say, only a day and I happened to log in to check on it 30 minutes before it starts and then not log in for another two days, then I'd see something to complain about. --★KOKUOU★ 22:39, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) A question on the quest: I understand that we will only be able to obtain the quest for a short period of time. Will the quest be available (or whatever we're waiting for) for only a short period of time also? Thanks!Underated 22:50, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Given the 'unique' nature of the quest, it literally being the only quest I've ever seen executing a real life wait time in such a manner (still question why, are you still making the quest up?), I would have thought a clearer defination of it would have been delivered (especially with it being considered a festival quest, yet the festival is over etc and so on). But, this appears to be done as a device to deliever suspense (?).

Regardless, I still question why putting the notification outside of the game was seen as more productive than actually putting it on the quest. I mean, you made the defination for people to see, because people wanted to know, why not just put it in the text for the quest itself? ~~000.00.00.00~~ 23:26, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

As I said before put a countdown for such events on the website,ingame or whatever just a clock. The Waiting Game starts over: .... minutes orso. Death Sligher 00:32, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Timer would only work if they themselves knew when it was going to start. For all we know the quest isn't actually completed yet, thus the uniqueness of this quest. We just don't know. It's safe to say nothings going to change, regardless. Just live for the suspense. ~~000.00.00.00~~ 00:55, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Very ironically, this - exactly this - shows how all the whinning about more communication was completely empty. We got a lot of "Baaaaaw, Arena Net should let people know when stuff is coming in-game!" from a very vocal minority, and we got exactly that - a quest to let people know about something incoming. The result? As expected, exactly the same vocal minority is making exactly the same complains about how there has to be more communication, how it's not enough, and etc.

Arena Net should have learned by now that most of those demanding "more" of something will never be satisfied, as this example perfectly shows. Instead of wasting their resources writing, localizing and coding the placeholder of a quest that we have today, Arena Net should have simply stayed in silence and implemented the full quest once it had been finished. Would people have complained? Yes, exactly the same users who are complaining now. However, players wouldn't have wasted their time, Arena Net wouldn't have wasted Linsey's and Joe's time, and Regina wouldn't have to waste her time talking about this here and on the GW forums. Silence often is golden, while talking often (just look above) is trash. Erasculio 01:38, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

wUT? ...granted your post is already pretty long, but you're gonna need to elaborate on how exactly you made that logic jump from point Alpha to "they're all Malcontents" Gamma. Us "whiners" who you don't have the stones to name individually for NPA reasons, wanted DETAILS. We were already getting "communication" in the form of generalities and time-frame promises 99.9% devoid of substance. The part where communication needed to be beefed up was on DETAILS and in this case, Null-IP has a point. I don't condone his word-choices, but this quest & info gave us absolutely nothing in the way of details. I don't think even You could come up with a more cryptic leap of faith E.T.A. in-text-form even though your own post here certainly shows I'd be a fool to doubt you...
--ilr 02:00, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Funny how I don't even have to name people for someone to identify himself with the designation of "whiner". Spare me the excuses - "more" communication, "more" details, it all boils down to wanting a vague "more" that, as being exemplified here, won't ever be enough. Arena Net should learn that not all players are going to be pleased, no matter what they do, and that acting is more important than talking. Erasculio 03:02, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

What the hell are you even going on about, Eras, this has nothing to do with "more" information, I don't know where you're getting that from. At it's core, this still boils down to why Arenanet make a quest that requires a 'couple of real world days' for it to update ( a first for Guild Wars ) yet put that important piece of information outside of the game rather than in the game where, if you think about it, it would have been far more effective. There's building mystery, suspense and all that jazz but no sense of mystery or suspense would have been shattered by putting the information they put everywhere else in the quest log itself. ~~000.00.00.00~~ 06:34, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Heh, "this has nothing to do with "more" information" goes in direct contradiction to "yet put that important piece of information outside of the game". That's the cause of this problem - after the epic rants we got about how Arena Net should add information about incoming news in the game, they decided to do exactly that, and surprise, it doesn't work.

Let me spell it to you slowly: Arena Net could not say in-game that the quest would take a "couple of real world days" because after a "couple real world days" the quest would still say the same thing. It's perfectly viable to say it outside the game since on the wiki and on the GW forums people know exactly when Arena Net said it, so it's easy to guess when the quest will happen.

Again, the epic rants on demanding more information, especially in-game information, are completely pointless. The game has not been made with that kind of design in mind, and changing the game in order to make it viable would not only be extremely irrelevant (improving the game is more important than wasting resources talking about how to improve the game) but also a waste of the few resources Arena Net has (improving the game is more important than wasting resources talking about how to improve the game).

What's the lesson here? If Arena Net does not give information in game, a very vocal and very small minority will complain. If they do give information in game, a very vocal and very small minority will complain plus Arena Net will have wasted resources they could have used into something more important. It is rather obvious what Arena Net should do. Erasculio 11:30, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Eras, I'm sorry but I think you are over simplifying. Yes I agree no matter what anet do their will be peeps who bitch and moan about it, however their is a sizeable chunk of people who do not fall into the "lets bitch and moan about everything" camp who would appreciate a modicum of extra information. I'm one of those people and I know their are many others.

To be blunt, I think the quest dialogue was fine and I don't understand why people are complaining about it, as a bit of patience goes a long way and I do agree with you that people complaining about this, do seem a tad on the moan'y side. When the Reaper told me to go away and come back later, I just assumed it was days and not hours.

I think the quest dialogue could have contained a cryptic reference to when it will continue by making use of the many fixed point events that fall in this time period, for example Thanksgiving or Guy Fawkes night, that way the quest would always have been accurate with no need to change over time. (for example it could have said that they plan on staging there attack against dhuum 3 days after the night of Fawkes or 2 days before the feast of thanks and so on and so forth...)

However all of this is quite by the by, simply put Eras, you continue to lump everyone who wants more information into a minority of discontents which simply is neither informed, accurate or fair and is a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. True this quest is something stupid to moan about but most of the people I know in game are informed and understanding adults (the joys of being in an adult guild), who enjoy being treated as such and they appreciate being met half way by anet in communication. However in regards to more important aspects of the game, they do not appreciate being ran round the houses with vague comments and then being told later that it was them who misinterpreted anet, not anet which dropped the ball. (see the current issue arising with the lack of a published skill update after it was expressly stated that doing so would be part of the move to the bi-monthly skill cycle). So yeh Eras I agree, bitching and moaning about a festival quest is just that, bitching and moaning, however having a valid complaint about crap communication in regards to actual things (skill updates and game content) should not just be lumbered in with that. -- Salome 12:02, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

"Arena Net could not say in-game that the quest would take ... the quest would still say the same thing." Of course the dialogue would say the same thing, why is that an issue for you? It's literally text in a quest stage, dude, you're waaaaaaay too over-thinking what would actually be required for all this. Guild Wars can update mutiple quest stages at once, Eras, it also crosses out text because requirements have been met and brings up new text where avaliable. All quests dialogue stays the same, however in situations where requirements are met the game updates it to be necessary stage, in this case it would just cross out the time reference stage and go to the next one, leaving the reference in the history, just like every other quest in the game. For people taking the quest after the preparation time, if it's still avaliable, it would just update twice once you talk to the Voice the first time. "It's perfectly viable"

And, I'm sorry if this seems moany, but I spent a large portion of my day in game, when this quest first came out, directing people to Regina's journal page so they could see that it was going to be a few days before it updates because people didn't, like Salome and others, immediately assume it meant it was days away, and the common thing I heard was why they didn't put that in the quest instead of just leaving it open and putting it out of the game. So that's part of the reason I posted this in the first place. Suspense, fun, treats all that good stuff is all well and good, but they can be handled better, especially seeing as how people don't necessarily see it how Arenanet may want it to be seen. ~~000.00.00.00~~ 12:29, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Salome, I'm not saying every complain about communication is invalid. I'm saying the very long rants we got about how Arena Net should add more information about future events in-game are invalid, since that's outside what the game can currently do, as is being exemplified. Plus, every demand for "more" - as in, a vague definition of "more" that isn't detailed - has to be taken with a grain of salt, given how the amount of said "more" needed is controversial at best. A good example of this is the storage problem - plenty of people kept asking for "more" storage, but without specifying how much storage they wanted, anything Arena Net did could still be seen as not enough.

000, the quest text doesn't change in the way you're claiming it does. There is no quest in which the NPC who gives the text has a different quest description based on the time; in other words, if a character who went today to the Steward to get the quest for the first time saw a notice about how he would have to wait a few days, a character who went to see the Steward in a few days would still see the same notice since the NPC dialogue doesn't change. What the game crosses out are the objectives once the quest has been added to the quest log, not the quest description. You could ask Arena Net to implement such thing as a new feature, and then we go back to wasting resources that they could be using to improve the fight against Dhuum, not the quest about telling people to wait for the battle against Dhuum.

I do agree with you this could have been handled better - Arena Net shouldn't have made this quest at all. They should have simply stayed in silence until the real quest were done, and then implemented it without wasting time with this "Waiting Game" thing. Which is the exact opposite of what some rants were telling them to do. Erasculio 12:46, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

I agree with most of your post, but I vehemently disagree with your assumption that they cannot add more information in-game. If anything is important enough to warrant a journal post or guru thread, it should be mentioned in the login notes (mentioned, not talked about in great detail). If people are interested in getting the full scoop, they can follow the link on the login announcement screen that goes to the Journal post.

For this quest in particular, there was another option for in-game information - the quest dialog. The NPC says "come back later," but it could have easily been written to say "we will be awhile in preparing for this glorious battle, don't hang around this outpost waiting all day," and that would have given people the right idea without telling them a specific number (or even saying "days"). People bitch about everything, but there are little things ANet could do that would go a long way to alleviate the confusion these things cause. I'm not talking about spending 500 man hours making some new in-game announcement system, I'm just talking about tweaking what they're already putting into the game to be a little more informative. This doesn't have to be a huge ass effort - they're good enough at wasting their time on their own. I just suggest things that have the best payoff for the least amount of work. Y'know, the opposite of what happened with the hench bar contest? :/ -Auron 13:12, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

@Salome: Just wanted to say thank you for the thoughtful write up. I don't think this event qualifies as must-have Details either. I simply took issue with Era ...well, acting like Erasculio as usual I guess. There's just no need to be so divisive over this. At some point he needs to recognize (or atleast pick his battles better) that assurances of more details were made by the live team and that so far; many people aren't nearly as convinced as he is that Anet has lived up to them yet. And always labeling those people "whiners" only makes the situation worse in the long-run for the very people his actions are most sycophantic towards. But I guarantee that we will turn around and show much gratitude to Anet the instant they reverse this course. --ilr 02:12, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

I like the quest and the suspense. Granted, I won't be one of the (stupid) people sitting in ToA/ZKC/CoS waiting for the next step. King Neoterikos 02:57, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Hi Regina, When the Dhuum battle goes live will there be an annoucement on the guild wars website much like the mox quests? Dero Ahmonati 15:47, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Skill Balance for November 2009

I know you've all been pretty busy working on multiple projects lately but I was just wondering when we'd hear about the upcoming skills balance. It was posted that we're see portions of the updates changes a month in advance. October was quite busy with the Halloween updates so I was just wondering will we see the updates ahead of time this month or will be just get the update in the next few weeks (or next month) without warning. Usually y'all have the updates out within the first 1-2 weeks of a month but that time has come and past. Since skill updates have become bimonthly, it seems likes it's been forever since the last. Thanks in advance, Magic Talk 22:06, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

I thought the skill balance updates were every 2 months now? --Robot 00:28, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

it is but we are supposed to have a suggested skill update and we should have had it about 2 weeks ago as that was the whole point of going to a 2 monthly cycle rather than 1 monthly cycle. -- Salome 00:53, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Wait until January. They're enjoying the new Bspike/Sway meta too much. (and if you're thinking, "Wait, didn't they nerf those." No...they didn't. They only thought they did....) Karate Jesus 00:57, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

@Robot: Last update was in September. Magic Talk 01:52, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I was actually thinking that for Sway, I knew bspike was back in its latest mesmer related form but didn't think sway was, then again sway is always back, just shows I've been obsing too much gvg and not enough halls lately. Tidas 02:01, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I don't know why you'd want to obs tbh most of the time its the shame !!!! playing with the same !!! build against the same semi-active !!!! guild.Most of the time I just use it to talk to some friends lol :p Lilondra 19:45, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Not saying anything about the skill update won't make players feel connected with you arenanet! --Boro 13:55, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Personally I liked the new builds, even if they screwed some things up sometimes. But then again.. if they don't try, how do they know things won't get better. There have been some skills they've changed in the past and made them much better then what they were. I wish it was still monthly. Constantly creating and updating my builds was fun imo. Magic Talk 17:11, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

The design work on this continues to progress. There are a couple other projects that Live Team are working on that are planned for a future update (which I am not permitted to talk about yet), and juggling those different projects impacts time spent on a skill balance. I want to reassure you that progress is being made on this, however (for what it's worth). --Regina Buenaobra 20:53, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Can we still expect to hear a preview of the changes a month ahead of time, or are you guys waiting for the Test Krewe for that? Karate Jesus 21:06, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply Regina. Magic Talk 01:06, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

New Halls map and GvG tier. BlazeRick 20:14, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Guild Wars losing players, poor chices, and all when the end is near.

Ok, I'm not sure if Im in the right place or not, but I have been waiting for linsey to log on so I can talk to her for a while now. I am not sure why the recent changes to the game have been happening, but I and many others are really are not happy. I fail to understand when many people are going back to wow or moving on to aion and other games, why anet/gw would make changes to the game that only cause more people to leave. I love gw, and have played for a long time, at this point Im having trouble staying loyal to the game and thinking that gw2 will not be a game I buy. It has alway been a complaint and a frustration for many that it is hard to make money and get things done in game due to the time and ability, i.e. zrank 20,000 keys. I have seen about 15 friend leave the game in the last month, not counting the people that I enjoyed playing with over the years leave cause they just get frustrated. With gw2 coming out soon and people trying hard to get there titles done, buy armor, get weapons, and other things. why would anet/gw make game play harder and much more costly. Most people have a hard time getting enough ectos at 4 to 5k, now ectos are costing even more. It's difficult to get one character elite armor from fow for the majority of the players, now you are making it harder, more costly, and to time consuming. Why would people want to play a game in which it is to hard to build there characters up and get the things offered in the game. One goal I had early on in the game was to get my sweet title, not knowing what I was getting into I spent a lot of time farming for sweets during the holidays. It took years and hours and hours of farming, and I still had to end up buying some of the sweets in game. If a title or something is offered, why is it unreasonable to spend time getting on days offering drops to be able to reach your gaol. Why play a game that makes it next to impossible to accomplish the things offered in the game for just one character, let alone if you want to build up many charaters. Anyone can create a character that can farm, making the game fair to almost all players, so why would you take away farm runs, or easier ways to get stuff or accomplish things in the game. Many people are just throwing up there hands and quiting the game cause the costs are being driven through the roof or it's being made harder to do it by playing the game. This is a game that is suppose to be fun, people like to build up the different characters they have, they like having certain weapons, mini's, and title. What is the time and cost of getting elite armor from fow, what if you have two or three character you like and want elite armor for, what if you want those charaters to have titles, what if you want this charater to have this weapon or that? Don't you think that 500 ectos for one weapon is a lot to ask or going to force people that want them to turn to buying gold and ectos from online companyies? Keg farming was taking away, which cause less characters to being able to farm, not finding ways to make more characters able to farm. So, should I, who wants to work on my ranger, sin, derv, and necro have to move to building up an ele, tracking down all the skill, spending more gold on armor and weapons this late in the game so I can keep working on sweets, wisdom, and tresure hunter titles? Why should I or anyone play a game that is next to impossible to do or accomplish the things offered in the game? I love gw, but I am at the point of giving up on the game, and Im tried of making friends with people in the game only to watch them get frustrated and quit. These seem like poor choices anet and all of you are making when the game is nearing its evalution to gw2. I thought that at the 4 year changes you were starting to see that for most of the people that play with the time they have, that the game was more then a bit unfair. I'm certainly glad I didn't buy any extra character slots at this point, for why should I when I can't even get the things done with the characters I have. I'm not shocked that people have stopped playing and moved on to other things. Why are the cost being driven up, skills being change, not just fixing bugs, this late in the game. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Wild Ranger Drizzit (talk).

One of our GW2 designers, who isn't sure how or where you got his email, actually forwarded me your message on Monday. Thanks very much for your detailed feedback, and we'll take that on board.

We appreciate that you took the time to send our designer a private message as well as post the same message on my wiki page to ensure we got it. In general, we would prefer that if you do send an email, it goes to community@arena.net, so we can route it to the correct people. The designer you contacted doesn't work on GW1. --Regina Buenaobra 20:17, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

FFS people, if you're gonna rant, atleast use a readable format Well that's terrific, this TL;DR crap gets a response but the questions about green remnants and next skill update's notes go unanswered... --ilr 20:28, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Have you heard of the other half of the game? It's called PvP. Try that for a change of pace. Also, prices of materials, runes, dyes, etc are all based on the player. They change due to supply and demand. Anet really doesn't have anything to do with those. King Neoterikos 22:11, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Well, I could easily create an equally sized rant on how awful what I just read was, but it's late so instead I'll make it into bullet points.

• Use indents and paragraphs, please, it will make it easier for people to be able to disagree with you.
• If all titles were easy to get, you would reach a point where you had nothing to do.
• Noone is forcing you to get titles, of minipets or fow armour, I recently got my first set of fow armour after three and a half years of playing, after which I didn't start crying because I didn't already have fifteen sets and a stack of ambraces.
• Ectos used to be higher in price, they were pretty stable at eight thousand five hundred when I first got into that market, and guess what, people were still playing and getting their fow armour and the like, I've heard it used to be higher than that still.
• A great way to contact Linsey is to post this on someone else's page.
• All of the high end content such as minipets, armour and weapons are meant to be prestigious, and your 'I want it now' attitude will get you absolutely nowhere.

Feel free to leave the game, you won't be surely missed, Good Night. Tidas 00:22, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

That's true, I've never read someone in team chat or all chat or whatever chat making someone feel bad because they don't have fow armour, or any other item of prestige. I never realised that. --smøni 00:31, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

I didn't read any of that....mainly because it's too big, but lolhaveyouheard?bigguildsaredisbanding. I was kinda hoping the dying process would have taken longer :/ Karate Jesus 03:03, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

To get gw back into shape alot would need to be done.But they just don't have the resources so obv the game is dying Lilondra 05:32, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Did you know that on plan 9 you can mount an ftp server as a file system? Isn't that crazy? It works just like a hard drive! The only difference you or any of your programs will notice is the fetching speed.

On a related topic, thank you, MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS (and oft-stated, and oft-ignored). –Jette 05:51, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes many people (like me) have left Guild Wars. Its not because of any lack of "responsibility" from AreanaNet but rather the fact that no game can provide limitless hours of playing time. Most players have either quit, or just PvP. ArenaNet does not have to have a game content every year because there is no subscription model. Guild Wars is a pay once play forever type game so you cannot except the level of content found in a game like World of Warcraft or Aion because they have subscriptions.

Plus no one is forcing you to buy GW2, its your choice. They are currently working hard on it, and like Final Fantasy 13 it will get here when it gets here. So until then play another game, get your titles up, PvP or do whatever you want -- except blame ArenaNet which has almost nothing to do with it. --Dominator Matrix 08:59, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

this game is geared towards the young and jobless markets...we...people that work DO WORK WEEK ENDS do NOT benefit from the "special weekends" why not have it the ENTIRE WEEK? As for as elite speed clears....i dont really care either way what happens there i dont really do them when you finally do learn it NERF! oh well move to farming i say or accomplish your titles. Anet has stated that there will be no mmore new content unless deemed fit. true there are alot of story lines that could use a better ending or made more elaborate. but since Anet has pulled 100% OF THERE TEAMS TO gw2 unless UNLESS something really strikes their fancy then they might spend the 50 days and nights putting in something new. i do wish they would add alot more to the orignal GW because GW2 will not use a mouse just the keyboard. im not hip to that so when i accomplish all that i can in the original i most likey wont get GW2 unless they put the mouse back in. i really love GW and to be honest its the only MMO i ver played and been playing well over 4.5 years. i know they kinda screwed up on the game engines or they used what was available at the time of release and it cant be carried over or patched to GW2 that im sorry for. i wish it could be. i dont want to leave the game, but when i have had over 60 people i played with on a daily/weekly basis leave just this year alone i get a lil sad. i dont like WOW and i dont make enough to pay for a monthly subscription for aion. i have to work nearly 6 days a week full time and a second parttime job just to feed a family of 3, im not alone in this take a poll. for the working people we get left out of just about all the "good stuff" cause its offered on weekends only.....AGAIN why not make that the entire week, so many of us can participate. there more i like to say but i just got home from work and have to get 4 hours of sleep b4 going to the next job. maybe i can type more then..... --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Talo Highpriest (talk).

When I read this...I can't delay to answer...I've been playing Guild Wars for 3 years and I must say that it's the game that'll last forever inside me. I never really got bored of it. I needed a few refreshments so I bought WoW and Aion to check them out. I've stayed on WoW for 3 months,stayed on Aion for a month and you know why? Some people cannot afford to pay for a game every month,even though they want to play it. And that's why GW lasts forever for me,because even if I leave it for a month or two,I always come back to it.GW compared to other MMO's has a lot of qualities. First of all it's simple,then we have extremely smooth movement,smooth moves,smooth combat,beautiful graphics,music,sounds.I was really disappointed with Aion,I expected a lot more.

It's your choice if you don't want to play GW...and stop complaining. ANet really done a great service with putting no fees to both GW and GW2. 93.86.31.184 10:57, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

"Anet has pulled 100% OF THERE TEAMS TO gw2" When you include blatant falsehoods in your comments, it's hard to take any of it seriously. The Live Team is 100% dedicated to working on GW, and has little if anything to do with GW2. Not only that, but they added an additional full-time designer to the Live Team in August. As for adding new content, well, we have all sorts of new content, the new Codex Arena, the PvP henchmen, all the new Halloween quests that brought about permanent changes to the UW (which aren't even finished yet), Nicholas x2, all the Zaishen stuff in April... and there is still more to come. None of that would have happened if as you say, they have pulled 100% of their teams to GW2. It may not seem like "much" but considering the game is 4.5 years old, it's a lot more than you get from many other games that old. Also, your comments about what GW2 will or will not have are purely speculation at this point since none of those kinds of details have been released yet, unless of course you have a crystal ball. I have also had long time GW friends stop playing, but that just opens up room to meet new people, and believe me, there are new people joining the GW community every day. As for games being designed for the young and jobless, well, you will find that a lot of people that play games have jobs, and still find time to play, I'm sorry you have to work weekends, but Halloween is a week long event, and Wintersday is 2. The rest are geared to the majority of players. -- Wyn talk 12:21, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Basically in agreement with Wyn. If anything however the weekend events are geared for those who have jobs. (not having a job would render waiting for the weekend a pointless affair) In waiting for the weekend it allows most people who work mon-fri jobs (which is the great majority of people) the ability to utilise the weekend bonuses. If you don't like this, then the advice is to get a week day job rather than a weekend job. I myself do a job which requires a great deal of my time and I work well into the weekends most weeks, however I still get to enjoy the weekend event when I'm free and if it's something I REALLY want to do, then I plan in advance and make sure my schedule is free for the weekend. (also just as an aside, how does mouse movement work in a truly 3d environment? You can't swim underwater in a point and click manner) -- Salome 17:03, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Salome, isn't it obvious? Guild Wars 2 devs should be working on integrating gesture-based depth controls to allow for click-to-move. I mean, we certainly don't want them balancing skills, pre-planning events, or bothering with detail-rich content. ··· Danny Pew Pew 19:50, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Except, Wyn, as you pointed out, they only hired one new designer. Only one. If they were really serious about adding new content to GW1 and keeping it going for people as well as help Linsey and the rest of the Live Team have a bit more sane workload, they would have hired at least 3-4 new designers instead. Not that anyone in the playerbase who isn't a 4 year vet would even have had a chance at getting the job anyway. And maybe with more designers they might actually find it possible to respond to us in a timely manner and not leave us in the dark all the time. --Nathe 22:12, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Having more minions doesn't necessarily make anyone spend LESS time locked away in their Towers... --ilr 04:40, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Only one. That's a 100% increase from what they had, so I would call it significant. -- Wyn talk 13:42, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Except that they could have hired more, and had a 300%-400% increase instead. Why do you keep missing that? --Nathe 13:50, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Nathe, you seem to have this idea that, in a non-PPM video game, ANet would somehow manage to have enough money to hire more than one designer. Unfortunately, most people don't like to work full time for free, so they have to compensate their designers. Also, as confusing as it may be, people generally get paid what they're worth. Sure, ANet might've been able to hire 2-3 high school drop-outs to assist the team for the same price, but I'm gonna go ahead and assume those high school drop-outs probably couldn't collectively produce a decent, functional, non-plagiarized idea if you gave them an entire year to do so.

Though, I'm not sure why I bothered to write this. No one on this wiki seems to understand that Guild Wars is a product made by a business whose goal is to make money. ··· Danny Pew Pew 19:44, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Well, it's to bad that many couldn't come up with any really intelligent argument. There is no really any point responding to tidas's comments because it's unintelligent, illogical, and doesn't relate to the issue or point of which I was hinting at. If a person has played the game for four years, has put in the time and work, they should be able to obtain most of the things the game has to offer. It's not as simple as supply and demand setting the cost for certain items in the game. I wish it was, but it's not. There isn't really one thing you can tie the over all issue I was getting at, and regaurdless of players not caring if people leave or quit the game, Anet does or should. I never said that getting things done or obtaining certain titles shouldn't be a challenge, one reason we play the game is for that reason. But, there is a differance between challenging and impossible or unreasonable. There is no reason why people that play the game like me hours and hours a day or for someone that plays a couple hours a day, can't accomplish close to the same things if they have been playing the game for years and years. With the coming of gw2 and the game rapping up, anet shouldn't be making changes to the game that raise prices and make it harder for people make money. It was like with the four year changes, they created new ways to get points and items like sweets and party points. It was a good change, and I had thought that gw was finally seeing that some of the things were a bit unreasonable. I offer help to many people in the game, I hear what people are saying, they get mad because its to costly and time consuming to do much. There is not anyone thing I do in the game, I try to take advantage of as many aspects of the game as I can, and I agree that some of the things are unreasonable. They should not be taking away farms or making changes to the game that are causing prices to go up. If I wanted to I could buy almost all the titles I'm trying to get, but why should I? Where is the fun in that? Take Zrank or the sweet title, and really do the math to think about how much farming you would have to do to reach max. Even expecting people to buy the title is crazy, but why shouldn't people that play on a regular basis be able to reach those titles just playing the game. Anyway, if people don't want to really talk about the real issues I'm bring up, then there is nothing I'm going to say that is going to make a differece. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wild Ranger Drizzit (talk • contribs) at 18:05, 17 November 2009 (UTC).

Honestly I agree with some points, but every1 just cant have everything. I will never see a mini mad king's guard in my inventory. With what 20 added to game and 6 million + accounts it seems a little too rare. I do feel everything should be obtainable IG. If its not it shouldnt exist(mad kings guard for example), but everything else is a joke. The traveler made sure of that.--SirBoss 19:20, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Ok, firstly, I am unintelligent and illogical, therefore any comments I make are forced to follow suit, and secondly, all rpg games have some element of grind. Almost all games of any genre still require time invested, which means that yes, people that have played more often will on average have accomplished more, as they have had more time in which to do so. I am not saying it's impossible by any means to get any or all of the titles, and technically it isn't. It's just that in reality it will take you a relatively unsurmountable amount of required play time.

Now if your saying you want the required time to be shorter, then that just brings me back to one of my original points that no player wants to reach a point in the game where they have absolutely nothing to strive for. PS Apparently the unintelligent part of me still wants you to break up your big walls of text. Tidas 01:48, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

If one has gotten most everything on a character and still wants to play, one should just make another character and starting getting all that stuff on him/her as well. But yes, I think much of the grind does seem to be unnecessarily long. --Nathe 13:56, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

"Anyway, if people don't want to really talk about the real issues I'm bring up..." Okay, what ARE the issues you are bringing up? Items/titles too expensive? No fun to max titles? People should be able to max titles without 'grinding'? Goals impossible to obtain? --Arduin 15:28, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Well, most of it it's a rant, but it's true that it seems that the one putting prices in some things must be a serious grinder. No way I'll get the big backpack for all my characters for example. And now that ZC can be used to get weapons, the backpacks are no longer the 'best thing to get', and there is no reason to keep their prices so high. But they will stay like that. They will probably try to make the game last 2 years more with that added. MithTalk 17:04, 18 November 2009 (UTC)